Muzongondi’s heart bleeds for the girl child

Sport
BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE FORMER Mighty Warriors captain Felistas Muzongondi spent more than a decade of her professional football career playing for virtually nothing. It was only after she moved to Mwenezana Queens owned by Tongaat Hullet in 2014, where she was offered a job at the company while she played football for the club that […]

BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE

FORMER Mighty Warriors captain Felistas Muzongondi spent more than a decade of her professional football career playing for virtually nothing.

It was only after she moved to Mwenezana Queens owned by Tongaat Hullet in 2014, where she was offered a job at the company while she played football for the club that she started to earn a decent living from the game.

And all the other years it was all about the love of the sport and perhaps the fame that comes with it.

Hers is the story of most, if not all, women footballers in the country. They remain among the poorly remunerated athletes in the country save for players who belong to clubs owned by top corporate companies.

Muzongondi – affectionately known as Figgy or Figo in football circles – captained the Zimbabwe team to the Rio Olympic Games five years, ago but it seems the challenges facing the women’s game have not changed much since then.

And it breaks her heart. “It is not easy being a female footballer in Zimbabwe because only few people and corporates want to support the girl child. Many love to watch us play but find it difficult to sponsor women football,” she told The Sports Hub.

“I don’t understand why women football is shunned, but at the same time we have achieved what no one else has achieved for the country by qualifying for the Olympics.

“One would have thought that by now we would be having a competitive league where we play for something in a professionally run league, where at the end of the year we can win proper trophies and a big cheque to go with it.

“As women footballers, we just play for the love of the game but we are not rewarded. I challenge big corporates out there to value the girl child and invest in our football,” the 34-year-old Black Rhinos Queens midfielder said.

The Mighty Warriors defied all odds from non-payment of salaries, winning bonuses and match fees as well as poor training conditions to become the first football team to qualify for the Olympics in Zimbabwe.

And amid the excitement, the then Sports minister Makhosini Hlongwane promised the players 30 housing stands in Harare but  up to now the government is yet to honour its end of the bargain.

However, Figo is happy to have been part of the history-making Mighty Warriors team.

“It was an amazing feeling to qualify our country for a big competition such as the Olympics. We played and lost all the matches but, since it was the first time for us we really enjoyed the experience.

“It was a great achievement just to travel to Brazil because it has never happened for any football team in Zimbabwe. It’s not an experience that cannot be bought by money, but history will always remember us,” Muzongondi said.

Muzongondi reflected on her football career which has spanned close to two decades.

“It started when I was very young playing football with my siblings, Admire and Welman. I also used to watch the Mighty Warriors players the likes of Nomsa Moyo and they made me fall in love with the idea of pursuing a football career.

“I started off at Masvingo Queens when I was still at Ndarama High School in 2003. I also played for Gweru-based Chipembere Queens; Detroit Queens was in South Africa just for a year and then Cyclone Queens in Mbare.

“In 2014 I got tired of playing football for nothing because all the clubs I played for until that time did not pay me anything, so it made life very difficult.

“I then went to Mwenezana Estate and spent two years at Mwenezana Queens at the same time got a full-time job there. In 2016 I joined army side Black Rhinos Queens and it’s my current team,” she said.

Muzongondi earned her first national team cap in 2006 and assumed the captaincy in 2013.

She feels that she can play the game for up to five more years.

“I feel fit so I can still give it three years of playing and I cannot rule out five years if I put my mind to it. It’s just that Covid-19 has disrupted a lot of things and everything is just uncertain, but we pray this will pass away and we will be able to resume playing,” she said.